


The Tree Line

by aliencereal



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 09:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5122931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliencereal/pseuds/aliencereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting off the mountain doesn't make everything better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tree Line

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'please, don't leave'. I wrote this entirely to 'bad idea' by motion city soundtrack if you're looking for mood music.
> 
> Spoilers and some nondescript vomiting lay ahead.

Sometimes, a word or phrase will stick in Ashley's head. It clings there until she can put it down on paper, exorcise it from her thoughts. She's always thought it made her a better writer.

One of the cops updates them on Jess' condition. He says 'it looks like she's out of the woods'. Mike bows his head to hide relieved tears, and the words crawl into Ashley's brain. The lingering shadows from the actual, literal woods give them more weight as she starts to think of this morning as an extension of last night.

They haven't given her fresh clothes, so she reeks of pig's blood. Chris' hands shake, and there's no telling when it shifts from cold to fear to exhaustion and back. They interview Mike a second time after they talk to Emily. Sam only speaks when spoken to. Matt is refusing to leave Emily to get his cracked ribs looked at.

A policewoman makes an offhand comment in Ashley's hearing range. 'Firing a blank at your skull will shatter it, that Washington kid didn't do his homework.' 

Chris follows her into the bathroom and holds her hair back while she dry heaves. She can't stomach the memory of a gun barrel pressed to the underside of his jaw.

Sitting on the bathroom floor, she doesn't feel out of the woods at all.

Chris rubs her back in slow, steady circles while she cries. Thank God he dropped the gun, thank _God_. She nearly lost him so many times.

"Do you want a glass of water?" He asks, the hand on her back stilling. She shakes her head.

"No, I-- please, don't leave," Her voice is hoarse from screaming and bile.

"Okay, yeah, I'm here," Chris says. He nudges her gently to invite her to rest against him. It takes some maneuvering, but she settles with her head tucked under his chin. He's shaky but solid, warm and moving and _alive_.

They got out of the real woods together. If he's here, then the figurative forest can't hurt her.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is xenosaurus if you want to come poke me.


End file.
